Justin Marriott [ed] — Paperback Fanatic #48

[dem bones]

Out now!

Justin Marriott [ed] — Paperback Fanatic #48 (Paperback Fanatic, April 2024)

COLUMNS
Paperback News — News of media related to vintage paperbacks and made by people we like.
Paperback Views — We have letters! Well two emails, which I guess counts?
Artists Assemble — Tom Tesarek on Wally Wood's work for the SF digests and paperbacks.
The Auctioneer — Jules Burt takes in recent prices realised at eBay.
The Sleazy Reader — Tom Tesarek takes the controls for a look at a prescient paperback.
Hortwitz Paperbacks — Jeff Popple's column on the cult Australian publisher takes on spies.
Haunted Love — Justin Marriott continues his pointless obsession with gothic romance paperbacks.
Naval Gazing — Justin Marriott commences a pointless obsession with naval adventure paperbacks
Robot Roy Speaks — Roy Nugen on cult film director Fred Olen Ray and his paperback influences
Book of the Movie — John Peel on James Bond. Insert shaken not stirred pun of your own choice
The Vault of Pulp Horror — Tom Tesarek tackles an issue of Ace Mystery Magazine.
The Horror! the Horror! — Steve Carroll on the vampire police procedural.
Hot Lead — Steve Myall on the Wilderness series by David Robbins.
The Manly Man's Manly Book Cave — Steve Carroll reviews a recent issue of Men's Adventure Quarterly.

ARTICLES
Shark!— James Doig on the wave of shark—exploitation in Australian paperbacks during the "Summer of Jaws.
The Panther Crimeband — Jules Burt on the distinctive "Crimebands" from UK publisher Panther.
When Eight Bells Toll I Sit Up and Pay Attention — Jim O'Brien shares life lessons on the difference MacLean and Hemingway.
I Wanna Be A—DAW—ed — Justin Marriott showcases his picks from the first 100 DAW Books
Strangers in a Strange Land — Justin Marriott on authors who worked in genres you wouldn't associate them with
The Filth and the Fury — Justin Marriott on horror giant John Farris, who mixed sleaze and hi—brow in his unique horror books.
Bloody Kids! — Justin Marriott's A—Z of Children's Horror in the UK

Available via

*m*zon. uk

A*m*z*n.com

Was only planning usual initial flick through but then I hit Shark!, the children's horror six pager, the interviews with Chris Mikul and Steve Holland, the pulp fair report, assorted Aus pulps .... thoughts on these and much else herein to follow over coming days ...

Thanks and very well done to Justin & contributors!

[humgoo]

Have never seen Mr Marriott interviewed. Lovely. Thank you Mr Burt!

[andydecker]

Thank you so much for this, humgoo. Great to see Justin in the flesh.

[jamesdoig]

Apr 29, 2024 6:35:08 GMT humgoo said:

Have never seen Mr Marriott interviewed.

Justin is certainly a natural in front of the camera - very well done!

[Jojo Lapin X]

Apr 29, 2024 20:21:59 GMT jamesdoig said:

Apr 29, 2024 6:35:08 GMT humgoo said:

Have never seen Mr Marriott interviewed.

Justin is certainly a natural in front of the camera - very well done!

Yes, very nice.

[dem bones]

I'm sure he fitted in more than 25. Thought the tributes to Michel Parry and Lawrence James were particularly lovely. The Peter Haining interview - think it was the very last before his death - remains my favourite single Fanatic article. In case anyone missed it, there's a companion video. Jules Birt & Justin preview Paperback Fanatic #48 HERE

[dem bones]

"All around him now blood covered the surface and no one had seen this awful thing ... she ... what was left of Marjorie was bobbing up and down stupidly on the surface with a buoyancy he did not understand ... it bobbed around then rolled over backwards, frontwards and then became vertical to bob up and down again ... as if to mock him part of the top of her bathing suit still clung against her chest ... the other part must have gone into the shark's belly ... "

— Roger Franklin, Shark! (Script 1975)

As mentioned above, first piece I read through was James Doig on Aus pulp's glut of gloriously terrible Jaws rip-offs and cash-ins at the height of mid-seventies killer shark mania. Informative and hilariously macabre, James' article also features my second favourite of the issue's cover scan selections. Shouldn't be too hard to guess the first.

This time out, Tom Tesarek devotes his shudder pulp column to one of the subgenre's lesser titles, namely Ace Mystery Magazine, for May 1936. From Tom's capsule reviews, this issue doesn't sound too hot, though given the opportunity I'd certainly attempt John H. Knox's contribution, The Corpse Queen's Lover and, truth be told, most likely all the rest — even Cat-Man. According to Dave Saunder, the cover artist is Howard J. Sherman. No accompanying interior illo's this time - is that because Ace Mystery didn't use them (genuine enquiry, if anyone can help). On a similarish note, Ray Nugent celebrates filmmaker Fred Olen "Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers" Ray's several forays into pulp horror fiction; "clearly he writes the stuff he wants to read" — with lurid cover art to match.

Sticking with the horrors, Steve Carroll on two 'sixties modern day vampire novels, Leslie H. Whitten's Progeny of the Adder and Jeff Rice's The Night Stalkers, the latter introducing beat up, whisky-reeking, investigative newshound Carl Kolchak as a kind of degenerate anti-Columbo/ accidental occult detective who nobody will listen to.

Overall personal standout of #38 is the editor's six page A—Z of UK '70s-'80s children's horror and ghost paperback anthologies, many of them known and loved by certain of our readers, including two sides devoted to those who made "noteworthy contributions" to the cause — but can you spot the glaring omission? On a related note, Chris Mikul cites the Piccolo True Adventures series, Richard Garrett's Great Sea Mysteries in particular, as "my introduction to a whole host of Fortean subjects" and "the beginning of my book collecting."

My beef with the interviewees is that they — and their wares — are too bloody interesting by far. Bad enough we already had to add a load of appalling killer shark nonsense to our too terrifying to even contemplate wants lists, now we've Steve Holland's history of Badger Books, Andrew Nette's Horowitz Publications: Pulp Fiction and the Rise of the Australian Fiction and the entire back catalogue of Chris Mikul's Biblio Curious and Bizarrism zines to join them. And there's the risk you run; to read an issue of Paperback Fanatic is to realise every book you ever bought is crap and you need an entire new library.

TBC

[dem bones]

Re: Jules Burt video above;

Justin Marriott's Twenty five Books That Made Me

Handy checklist

1. Richard Allen, Skinhead
2. Peter Haining, The Monster Trap & Other True Mysteries
3. James Herbert, The Rats
4. Don Pendleton, The Executioner's War Book
5. H. P. Lovecraft, The Haunter of the Dark & Other Tales of Terror
6. Peter Cave, Chopper
7. Jeremiah Jack, Train Wreck
8. George G. Gilman, Adam Steele #49; The Long Shadow
9. Guy N. Smith, Killer Crabs
10. Robert E. Howard, Valley of the Worm
11. Dean Ballinger, Gannon #3: Blood Beast
12. Leo Kessler, Wotan #22: The Outcast
13. Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Princess of Mars
14. Karl E. Wagner, Darkness Weaves
15. Trudi Maxwell, Diary of a Female Wrestler
16. Richard Matheson, I Am Legend
17. Frank Scarpetta, Slaughter House
18. Robert E. Lory, The Witching of Dracula
19. Andrew Quiller, The Eagles: City of Fire
20. Doug Masters, TNT
21. Graham Masterton, The Heirloom
22. Peter McCurtin, Body Count
23. Gerard de Villiers, Malko; West of Jerusalem
24. James Marvin, Crow #8: A Good Day
25. Nick Carter, Vatican Vendetta

Bonus:
26. Mick Norman, Angels from Hell: The Angel Chronicles

#12 would have been a Sven Hassel WWII novel, but he forgot where he kept them.

[jamesdoig]

May 2, 2024 8:42:26 GMT dem bones said:

Overall personal standout of #38 is the editor's six page A—Z of UK '70s-'80s children's horror and ghost paperback anthologies

That was my favourite too - lots of fond memories there, especially the Piccolo paperbacks.

[jamesdoig]

Not sure if Jeff Popple's blog has been posted here before, but definitely one for Vaulters: murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/ Latest post includes a review of PF48.

[dem bones]

May 3, 2024 9:20:42 GMT jamesdoig said:

May 2, 2024 8:42:26 GMT dem bones said:

Overall personal standout of #38 is the editor's six page A—Z of UK '70s-'80s children's horror and ghost paperback anthologies

That was my favourite too - lots of fond memories there, especially the Piccolo paperbacks.

A companion children's horror & supernatural novels from same period might be good for two pages?

As someone who care's nothing for a book's "collectability" - in fact, I prefer those that aren't - I'm giving Scott Carlson quote of the issue for "Please don't turn PAPERBACK FANATIC into a price guide." I much prefer Mr. Burt's report on what must be the best-attended London Paperback & Pulp fair of the past decade (likely twice that) and, even more so, the interviews with the Fanatic on his youtube channel.

A copy of the Tandem The Abduction has been festering on the shelves of shame for an age. On the strength of Tom Tesarek's Sleazy Reader piece, that's likely to continue a good while yet. Is it another of those books that are more interesting to read about than read?

Been failing abysmally to come up with decent suggestions for Stranger in a Strange Land, "works by authors in genres you typically associate them with." Best I could think of were Dennis Wheatley's solitary sci-fi novel Star of Ill-Omen, and royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell's foray into cryptozoology, The Loch Ness Story (though in terms of peculiarity, it's not a patch on Alex Harvey's spoken word 'solo-album' devoted to same theme).